Maui Resorts Report Strange Pool Lounge Chair Towel Mischief

Large resorts on Maui are reporting an unusual number of incidents related to vandals purposely soiling towels that lay on lounge chairs around pools unintended.

In fact, hotel investigators believe they have whittled down the primary victims into a single category.

"Those annoying people who sneak down really early and set their towels on lounge chairs to unofficially 'reserve' them, but then return to their room, or even leave the hotel entirely, but leave their towels there, seem to be targeted," said Timothy Mott, owner of West Maui Investigations, hired by several resorts to look into a series of what they believe are related incidents.

Under suspicion are small brown stains found on corners of many towels at once, as if culprits walked down a line of lounge chairs and soiled a bunch of them quickly.

Investigators so far seem stumped as to the brown substance, though they have suspicions.

"I mean, we all saw 'Caddyshack,' so we're aware that this could be from chocolate candy bars," Mott said. "But no one's been brave enough to put a towel up to their nose to make sure. Someone could capture that on video and make it go viral."

Instead, incidents have been reported to the Maui Police Department, which confiscates soiled towels as evidence as investigations continue.

"If this keeps up we might have to look into getting a storage unit to keep all these resort towels in," said Sgt. Mickey O'Toole of the MPD's property division.

Meanwhile, some resort visitors say they try to keep vigilance on the towels from their balconies nearby. Some are even waiting to videotape crimes in action with hope the clips will go viral.

"It's so rude to come back from the Road to Hana only to find our towels stained brown on the corners," said Constance Buckley of Seattle. "I mean, we have to bunch them up and walk them to the resort desk to get new ones, which is totally like a pain."

"And what about early tomorrow morning, will we be safe to again set our towels on a lot of lounge chairs at once, so others who are actually at the pool can't just take the chairs?" asked her partner, Josephine Wapner, also of Seattle. "That's not fair."

Meanwhile the Safeway supermarkets in Lahaina and Kihei report a big surge in chocolate sales the past month.

"All the sudden these young people all seem to want chocolate," said Irene Bohannon, assistant to the co-manager of the Lahaina Safeway. "Some even ask us which candy bars melt fastest, or which colors look the most disgusting if they melted. It's been kind of creepy."